Annapolis- On Monday, February 6th, Senator Justin Ready (R-5) and Delegate Haven Shoemaker (R-5) introduced legislation in the Maryland General Assembly to improve the accuracy and integrity of Maryland’s voter rolls. “This common sense measure requires jury commissioners to notify the State Board of Elections whenever someone is disqualified from jury duty because they are not a U.S. citizen. We want to ensure that this person is not registered to vote,” said Senator Ready. “It is imperative that the State of Maryland conducts free and open elections, and that must go hand-in-hand equally important to ensure that our voter rolls are accurate,” Delegate Shoemaker said. “In addition it can save the court system from continually mailing people for jury duty that are not eligible.”

“Maryland is a motor-voter state, meaning that you can register to vote when you apply for a driver’s license. There are a number of instances when a non-citizen resident (whether legal or illegal) applies for a license, they check off the box to register to vote. The court system uses these files in jury selection,” said Shoemaker. “We are trying to ensure that the only people voting in Maryland’s elections are those that are legally allowed too,” Ready concluded. “This piece of legislation will help ensure that illegal votes are not cast in our elections.”

The Voter Registration Integrity Act of 2017 will give a jury commissioner five days to provide the information to the State Board of Elections. The State Administrator at the Board of Elections will be required to document that these names have been reported and removed from statewide voter registry. The goal of the Voter Registration Integrity Act is to help preserve the sanctity and integrity of Maryland’s elections.